


it's just that at night I've got nowhere to hide

by myloveiamthespeedofsound



Series: Wherever I Go (I'll Be Looking For You) [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, based on a tumblr prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 21:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8029549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myloveiamthespeedofsound/pseuds/myloveiamthespeedofsound
Summary: Based on a prompt from a "the way you said I love you" meme - With a hoarse voice, under the blankets





	it's just that at night I've got nowhere to hide

They’re not sleeping together.  Well, okay, they’re sleeping together in the most  _ technical _ version of the term.  But it’s not sex.  It’s not even making out like teenagers between the sheets.  They just  _ sleep _ , in the dark of the night with his arms wrapped tight around her, or when they’ve shifted in the bed and there’s nothing but their fingers hooked delicately together to keep that connection.  Something they’d started months ago when she’d fallen asleep on top of the covers during a late night Netflix binge.  She’d woken up to his arms looped around her waist, his face nuzzled into her hair, and slightly disoriented from the best sleep she’d had in years.  Wordlessly she’d crawled under the blankets the next night and curled herself into his side.    


They don’t talk about it, just find each other as night comes to the Avengers facility.  He hasn’t even  _ kissed _ her - though she thinks about that a lot, about how his lips would feel against hers in something intentional and not an “uncomfortable public display of affection”.  But it’s still the most intimate thing Natasha has ever done in her life.  Trust in the upmost on both their parts as they let the other see the broken mess they could become in the dead of the night as nightmares pull them under.  Another thing they don’t talk about in the light of morning.  They know better.  There’s no  _ are you okay _ between them because they know they’re  _ not. _  That they  _ survive _ and that’s the best they can hope for.     
  
It’s well into that space between night and morning when she feels him stir.  Subtle at first, and then his body twists and contorts as the nightmare ravages his mind.  Words sputtered through shaking lips, words she doesn’t try to find the sense in because there is none.  It pulls her from her own slumber and she moves, turns out of his arms to wrap hers as best she can around him.  He’s shivering and she runs her hands up and down his back.  “Shhh… Steve… Steve… I’m here…” A mantra she repeats and repeats as his body shakes and shakes.   
  
Her arms barely wrap around him but he  _ collapses _ into them none the less.  Desperate for the warmth her body provides when his mind is nothing but the vivid memory of ice and cold.  His eyes snap awake and she’s  _ there _ as he does.  Scooting down to his level as her hands move to his face, her gaze steady as she looks at him.  “Steve…” she whispers. “Look at me, look at me,” she instructs.  Her legs slide between his as he shakes and shivers.     
  
“Natasha…” he speaks softly.  Recognition and she nods.  “Cold,” he half speaks, half whispers.  She understands and reaches for the duvet.  They shuffle as she pulls it up and over them, she scoots up a little so his head tucks under her chin.  His arms encircle her, holding on to her warmth for dear life as her own wrap around him.     
  
“Shhh…” she continues, her hands pressing into his back.  “You’re not there, Steve, you’re with me, I’ve got you… I’ve got you…” she keeps speaking, low and hushed tones and variations of a theme.   _ I’m here, I’ve got you, you’re safe. _   
  
His shaking subsides, the shivering follows.  But his arms tighten around her, his mouth dangerously close to the bare skin of her neck and she finds herself barely able to breath as he exhales against her.  The air shifts.  The nightmare gone but they don’t move.  Her hands dance across his skin,  _ so much skin _ , his muscles taut and lord how she  _ wants _ .  Her skin buzzes, burns, electricity running just under the surface as his fingers move up to the back of her neck and into her hair.  She exhales a sigh, a moan as his lips press into her skin.  Desire coils in her, flushes her skin and she can feel the same on him.  A shift in the air between them as his lips start a tentative, but purposeful, dusting against the column of her throat.    
  
“Natasha…” he says, his voice hoarse with lust and the come down from his nightmare, “I love you.”   
  
Backwards, they’re all backwards and inside out it seems.  But the words cause a hitch in her breath.   _ He loves her _ .  He hasn’t even kissed her and he loves her.  And she knows on anyone else it would be crazy.  But they’re _ them _ and it’s been a long time coming.  Her fingers press into the skin of his back and she shuffles herself down to his level.  “I love you, too,” she whispers, her fingers moving to brush against his lips.  Lips she no longer has to wonder how they would feel against hers with intent as she closes the space between them and finds out.     
  



End file.
